St Mary of
Egypt

Memory celebrated 1 April and 5th Sunday of Great
Lent

One
of the most celebrated (and discussed) saints in the
Orthodox pantheon, Mary of Egypt has a long history.
Scholars attribute the earliest known version of her legend
to Sophronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem (+ 639 A.D.). Written
first in Greek, it appeared later in Latin, French, Spanish,
Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, German, Norwegian, English,
Armenian, Ethiopian, Syrian and Ukrainian translations.
Immensely popular throughout the Middle Ages, both in the
East and West, the haunting figure of Mary of Egypt is known
also in modem literature.

Dostoevsky mentions her in The Brothers Karamazov (1880),
James Joyce in Ulysses (1922). The subject of a poem by the
American poet John Berryman, she is named in its title, No
47: April Fool's Day or Saint Mary of Egypt (1964). Along
with this "funny title," the poem's final two verses note
that Mary's feast day falls on April 1.

We celebrate her feast with our caps on,
whom God has not visited.

The poet suggests that unlike Mary, whom God "visited,"
some of us wear a "fool's cap."

In addition to April 1, this saint is also commemorated
in the Orthodox Church on the Fifth Sunday and Thursday of
Lent.

As indicated by her name, Mary was born in Egypt. When
she was twelve years old, she ran away from home. She went
to Alexandria, the cosmopolitan city founded and named for
the world conqueror born in Macedonia. There the runaway
girl became a prostitute. For seventeen years Mary led a
licentious life on the streets of that busy Mediterranean
seaport. She enjoyed the life she had chosen. Money did not
interest her. Mary had, she confessed, "an irresistible
passion for wallowing in the mud."

One year, she encountered some young men down by the
harbour Wishing to venerate the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, the
young men were about to sail to the Holy Land. Mary, always
ready for adventure, joined them. She had no money. So she
offered herself as payment for her passage. The young men
accepted her offer.

On arrival in Jerusalem, the pilgrims from Alexandria
went to the great church to venerate the Cross. (It had been
discovered in 326 AD by Saint Helen.) Out of curiosity, Mary
joined the procession with her fellow-travellers. Unlike
them, however, she could not step across the threshold into
the church. She tried repeatedly, but each time invisible
hands held her back.

After Mary's companions entered the church, she remained
alone, outside in the courtyard, frustrated and weeping.
Suddenly the thought crossed her mind that it was her
dissolute life which prevented her from entering the church.
Mary then noticed an ikon of the Theotokos.
Falling on her knees before it, she appealed to the Mother
of God to help her enter the church. Always as compassionate
as her son, the Theotokos granted Mary's request.

After venerating the Holy Cross, Mary returned to the
ikon to thank the Theotokos for the mercy and grace given
her. As she stood in front of the ikon, Mary heard a
mysterious voice, instructing her to cross the Jordan. She
obeyed the voice.

En route to the river, she met a Christian who gave her
three loaves of bread. By nightfall Mary reached the Church
of Saint John the Baptist, located near the Jordan. When she
had washed her face in the sacred water, she returned to the
church and received Holy Communion. She then ate half of one
of the three loaves of bread and drank water from the
Jordan.

The next morning, Mary found a boat and crossed over into
the desert on the other side. She was at that time twenty
one years old. She spent the rest of her life in the
wilderness. For forty-seven years Mary lived in total
isolation from the world. Until the day a monk named Zosimas
found her, she had neither seen nor talked with any human
being.

Zosimas was a holy man much honoured for "the purity of
his way of life and the fervour of his repentance." For
fifty three years, since childhood, he had submitted himself
to a strict ascetic discipline. Although he had attained
spiritual perfection, Zosimas had the uneasy thought that
somewhere there was someone who surpassed him spiritually.
He decided he must somehow find that person.

Zosimas therefore entered the Monastery of Saint John the
Baptist, near the Jordan, "the holiest of rivers." This
monastery was famous throughout Christian East for its
austere rules and the extraordinary holiness of its
community.

Every year, on the first Sunday of Lent, the monks of
Saint John's crossed the Jordan and withdrew into the
desert. Each monk went his separate way, to pray and fast
alone until Palm Sunday. Zosimas also made this Lenten
retreat.

After walking twenty days into the interior of the
desert, he saw a human figure in the distance. Fearing it
might be a demon, he made the sign of the cross. He then
began to pursue the strange, black-skinned, white-haired
creature, begging it to stop.

Mary stopped. Calling Zosimas by name, she asked him for
a cloak to cover her naked, sun-baked body. That the
stranger knew his name astonished the monk. At the same
time, it revealed to him that she was a "vessel" of the Holy
Spirit.

Mary and Zosimas prostrated themselves at the same
moment. Each thus acknowledged the holiness of the other.
Mary, respecting Zosimas because he was a priest, asked for
his blessing. For his part, Zosimas, certain that Mary was a
saint, asked her to bless him. "Your grace," he declared,
"is greater than mine."

Zosimas had expected to find his spiritual superior among
the monks in the monastery by the Jordan. Instead, he
discovered a woman in the desert whose spiritual triumphs
outshone his.

This was Mary's first contact with a human being in the
forty- seven years since, led by the Theotokos, she had
crossed the Jordan into the barren desert.

She wanted to know about Zosimas. She also questioned him
about conditions in the world. Was there peace? Did the
church prosper? How were the Christians? Zosimas answered
her questions. Reverently addressing Mary as "my spiritual
mother," he begged for her intercessions in heaven.

While the monk continued to lie prostrate on the ground,
Mary stood in silent prayer, her arms stretched toward
heaven. When Zosimas lifted his eyes, to his amazement he
saw Mary standing in the air, several feet above the
ground.

The thought again crossed his mind that she must be a
demon. Demons, it was well known, inhabited the desert
wastelands. But Mary, reading his unspoken thought,
reassured him. "Do not doubt," she said, "that I am only a
woman and a sinner."

Impressed by Mary's insight and powers of discernment,
Zosimas wanted more than ever to hear her story. Mary
described to him her career as a prostitute for seventeen
years on the streets of Alexandria, her conversion in
Jerusalem and the experiences of forty-seven years in the
desert.

Zosimas wondered how she had managed to survive alone in
such a hostile environment. She explained. "For seventeen
years I lived on the two and half loaves of bread I had
brought with me. Although they became hard as rocks, I ate
them, little by little. After that, I lived on plants
growing in the desert."

The first seventeen years had been the hardest. "This was
a time of daily struggles against temptations of all kinds.
Songs of the devil, which I used to sing, echoed through my
head. When I was thirsty and had no water to drink, I
remembered the refreshing sweet wines of Egypt. Then I would
turn my thoughts to the Theotokos. And a bright light would
shine in front of me, chasing away all bad thoughts. It was
always the Theotokos who restored peace to my soul."

In the course of their conversation, Mary quoted from the
Scriptures, the "books of Moses, Job and Psalms." This
surprised Zosimas. When he questioned her, she replied: "I
never learned to read or write. For forty-seven years I have
seen no one, not even an animal. I have had no teacher. God
taught me these words."

An illiterate woman, Mary had been transfigured into a
"theologian of the divine Word."

Convinced that he was in the presence of a person "who
was pleasing to God," Zosimas tried again to kneel before
her. But Mary, taking his hand, again did not let him.

Before they parted, she told him to keep her story a
secret. Mary also asked Zosimas to return next year on Holy
Thursday and to bring her Holy Communion. He should not
however, cross the Jordan: they would meet on the other
side.

The following year passed slowly for Zosimas. He was
eager to see Mary again. On Holy Thursday, Zosimas prepared
the consecrated bread and wine in a small chalice. He took a
few dates, figs and soaked lentils and went to the bank of
the Jordan. There he waited for Mary as she had
instructed

Night fell. A full moon rose and shone in the sky. Mary
still had not appeared. Zosimas sat and waited. No boat was
in sight on either bank. He wondered how Mary would cross
the river.

All of a sudden, Zosimas saw her standing on the opposite
bank. Mary made the sign of the cross over the river. Then
she walked across the Jordan. Her feet remained dry. It was
as if Mary had crossed on dry land. (Saint Peter almost
drowned when he tried to walk on water.)

After reciting the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, Mary
received Holy Communion from Zosimas. It was her first
Communion in forty-seven years. Filled with joy, Mary then
sang Saint Symeon's canticle:

"Now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace,
according to your word. For my eyes have seen my
Saviour."

Zosimas offered Mary the dates, figs and soaked lentils
that he had brought. But she refused everything, taking
nothing except three tiny grains of the soaked lentils.

Before parting from Zosimas, Mary asked him to return on
Holy Thursday next year to their first meeting place in the
desert. Mary then left him. She walked across the Jordan
again and vanished from his sight into the desert. Zosimas
had in vain tried to detain her longer.

The monk then returned to his monastery, "joyful and
amazed." Nevertheless, he regretted one thing. Zosimas did
not know her name. He was sorry that he had not asked the
woman for it. At their next encounter he would ask.

The next year, on Holy Thursday, Zosimas crossed the
Jordan and went to the place in the desert where he had
first met Mary two years earlier. He found her dead. Her
head faced the east. Her hands were crossed. On the ground
beside her body were written these words: "Father Zosimas,
bury the body of wretched Mary. Return to the earth that
which is made of earth. Add dust to dust."

Mary our Holy Mother had died the year before, after
Zosimas had given her Holy Communion. Now as he chanted
appropriate hymns and prayers, Zosimas wept. Then with a
small stick he began to dig a grave for Mary. But he made
little progress. The ground was hard and he was a feeble old
man.

Suddenly a large strong lion appeared and began digging
the hard ground. His appearance startled Zosimas because
Mary had told him that she had seen no animals in the
desert. Soon the lion excavated a grave large enough for the
saint. Zosimas then buried Mary. She was still wearing the
cloak he had given her at their first meeting.

After the burial, the lion and monk parted. The lion
bowed to Zosimas and disappeared into the desert. The monk
returned to his monastery. Before dying at the age of one
hundred, Zosimas had told the story of Mary of Egypt.

Later, patriarchs of Constantinople and emperors of
Byzantium glorified Saint Mary of Egypt in sermons and
hymns.

"O holy transformation that brought you to a
noble way of life.
O godlike love, O burning faith in God.
We bless you, Mary, worthy of great praise. And forever
we exalt you above all others."

Note:

Byzantine hymnographers address Mary as "holy mother."
They describe her as "god-bearing," "god-minded," and
victorious over Satan who deceived a "gullible little woman"
(Eve). At the hands of Saint Mary of Egypt, Satan had
endured disgrace, "defeat and ridicule."

Trusting in her powers of intercessions in heaven, and
relying on her sympathetic understanding, generations of
Orthodox have turned in prayer to Saint Mary of Egypt.

"O Holy One, behold my sorrow and the
groaning of my heart. See the narrowness of my life. Save
me from my sin and have mercy on my soul, through your
mediation before the Lord."

from Saints and sisterhood: the lives of
48 Holy Women
by Eva Catafygiotu Topping,
Light and Life Publishing, p 165-172